Remainder
by MC David
Summary: Set two weeks after the events of Signs and sometime after Men in Black II After an alien invasion that left the world in dissaray, the Men in Black must pick up the pieces and deal with the aliens that were stranded on earth when the invaders hastily left. T for violence/language
1. Aftermath

**A/N:** Although this is almost entirely a Men in Black/Signs crossover, there will be various minor inclusions from other franchises, which I will not give away and allow you to pick up on. The backdrop of this fiction draws from Men in Black, Men in Black II, Signs, and uses Men in Black III as "flavor" material, acknowledging certain elements while discarding others.

1

K didn't feel right, sitting behind the desk his old friend and superior had sat in for so many years. His position as head of the Men in Black was strictly ad-hoc, but it was an unspoken assumption among the agents that K would be keeping that position permanently. It wasn't like the agency had anyone else to replace him. He gazed out into the MiB headquarters through the glass walls of his elevated office. He didn't like the thought of it being _his_ office. K thought about Zed. He was mourning for him, in a somewhat secret way. K was a man of little emotion; he made a reputation of himself in the agency of showing very little feeling. He had something of a block in his mind, one of his own design, to keep the serious feelings at bay, to keep him emotionally detached, it was tailor made for a situation just like this one, but as it seemed to K, his block was nowhere near as effective as he had always believed.

Two weeks had passed, two long and frustrating weeks, since the floating lights had left the sky, since the unnamed alien's siege on the planet Earth had ended, since Zed's death. The Men in Black, for once in their entire existence, had been too late to avert tragedy. It had all happened so fast, one day it was all business as usual, the next day, crop circles appeared worldwide. The Men in Black didn't know what to make of the crop circles, their appearance was widespread and immediate, but the MiB had received no message, no contact was established and no ships were detected, so when lights appeared in the sky over every crop circle that had appeared, the Men in Black were just as surprised as anybody. Within a week, the aliens had attacked, killed and consumed roughly a third of the Earth's population, and hastily left upon the discovery of their weakness, of all things, it was water.

It started in the Middle East, the news commended the discovery to a small boy with a water gun, but the entire world seemed to have figured it all out more or less at once. Britain presumably solved the problem before they even realized it. Crop circles appeared across the UK, but no sightings followed, they were lucky enough to have a climate marked with excessive rain. Less could be said about most of the United States.

Initially, the alien's departure had been cause for great celebration worldwide, for a short period of time, there was a sense of triumph among the people of Earth it was a sort of "the war is over" mentality. Within a couple of days of that celebration however, the entire world, as it seemed, went into a state of mourning. K thought back to Zed again. Zed had a gut feeling when the lights appeared in the sky, he knew it wasn't going to end well, his feeling was only cemented when people living around the crop circles started to disappear. When that news started to travel, Zed left to be with his younger sister and her family in New Hampshire. Everyone in the Men in Black had left people behind in the lives they chose to give up, some agents talked a lot about their past lives, and others hardly mentioned theirs, Zed never talked about his sister. K couldn't help but think that had Zed decided to stay in New York, he would have been fine; he would have been sitting at the desk K so reluctantly sat before. Zed wasn't the only agent to leave and reconnect with his loved ones when the situation became dire though, and he wasn't the only one to lay down his life for the loved ones he left behind.

K tried think of something else, anything else. He gazed out into the headquarters, big, shiny, white and _empty_. K consciously realized that it was the emptiest he had ever seen the place. Nearly half of the agents had decided to do exactly the same thing Zed had done, almost all of them had died. So the MiB was operating on half the manpower and on top of that, there were no visiting aliens to be seen, the visiting aliens were really the ones who filled up the MiB headquarters, but they were all gone. In fact, almost all friendly aliens living on Earth had packed up and left the planet immediately upon the appearance of the crop circles, they knew something the Men in Black did not, but that was just another question the agency didn't have an answer to. Had it been 10 years previous, the Men in Black may have been able to have a handle on the departing aliens, but Earth's resident alien population had quadrupled in recent years, the Men in Black weren't ready for a mass exodus.

No matter what he tried, K couldn't keep Zed out of his mind; part of him didn't want to believe his old friend was gone, after every near apocalypse, every tough negation, every unknown attack, every death ray threat, potential alien plague pandemic, Zed had finally bitten the bullet. K let out a deep sigh, he was so deep in thought that he hadn't heard his office door open, but he did feel a reassuring hand rest upon his shoulder, it was his partner, J.

"Ya know," started J. "There wasn't another man in the whole universe Zed would've rather seen in that chair." J's voice was filled with rare genuine sympathy, no humor or sarcasm.

"I know, slick." K responded, trying to force a half-smile.

"And, uh, I know you're the head honcho and all," J said, somewhat nervously. "But I just wanted to remind you that there is some stuff we gotta' get done one of these days."

"Yeah, I know." K said quietly. "I got the sighting reports this morning."

"What's the word?" J queried.

"Well over 200 sightings nationwide, but with the widespread paranoia, there's no telling whether or not they're all genuine." K said, coldly.

"I just wish we could just neuralize the population and let them get on with their damn lives." J commented.

"I hear ya, kid, I hear ya." K concurred, gesturing agreement with his hands. K stood up, pushed his chair in and faced J. "Well, we better get going." He said, casually.

"Right now?" J questioned, surprised.

"Yep, no time like the present," K very dryly remarked, "and the sooner we get this done the sooner _we_ get on with our damn lives." K added, maintaining his casual demeanor.

"What lives, man?" J asked with a chuckle. "This is all we do."

"Fair enough, come on." K said quickly, walking out of the office, with J walking quickly right behind him.

"Where we going first?" J asked, walking at K's side.

"Maine." K replied, simply.

"You driving?"

"You better believe it, kid."


	2. Monster

2

K's jet black 1987 Ford Crown Victoria drove at a reasonable speed down the Connecticut highway. Upon being reinstated as an agent of the Men in Black, K had been offered the new standard issue MiB vehicle, but opted to keep his old one, in his 3 year absence from the agency so much had changed; K liked the familiar feeling of driving the old thing. Two hours had passed, driving, and the entire time J had quietly sat in the passenger seat. In the past when a friend or family member was hurting J would use humor to cheer them up, but those were the days when he was simply James Edwards, a Philadelphia-born New York police officer, Agent J was wholly different. The only family he had was the Men in Black; only real friend he had was Agent K, and even in the best of times K wasn't much of a laugher.

The only sound heard in the old Ford was the dull hum of the engine as it sped down the relatively empty highway, not even the usual bad old-timey country music that irritated J so much. The roads were the emptiest either J or K had ever seen them, people seemed to travel less in the days following the invasion, which wasn't a surprise to anyone, paranoia had become a major factor in everyone's lives, people were afraid to walk out their front doors, much less travel across the state or country. Although it had only been a couple of hours since their departure, the silence made it seem like an eternity to J, even the passing scenery began to look the same. Only when the tedious silence became absolutely unbearable did J decide to chance a conversation.

"So uh, have you ever been to this place we're going?" J asked a little nervously, his voice cut through the silence, it sounded wrong, even to him, and his stomach churned as the words escaped his mouth.

"Maine, or the town of Durham specifically?" K asked coldly.

"Either." Responded J.

"I've been to Maine once or twice, but never to the town of Durham specifically." K explained, with just a hint of apathy.

"Iight." Said J, simply.

"From what I know it seems like a nice enough place though." K said, trying to lighten the mood.

"And what do you know?" J inquired with interest.

"In the early 70's we set a legal alien up with a residence there, an author, wrote a lot of horror novels, made a name for himself in terrestrial and extraterrestrial circles." K explained. "I never personally visited the town, but I did see some pictures of the place."

"Oh yeah," J started, "I think I went through his file once." There was a pause, before J remembered something he never asked about. "I never asked," he started, "but what exactly is the situation we're gonna be dealin' with?" K smiled a bit at J's question, even after 5 years in the Men in Black, even with all his experience, J was still a rookie.

"Well," began K, trying to conceal his faint smile, "it's a small town, and at least one farm in the area reported a crop circle, there have been a few sightings and other reports that could indicate extraterrestrial activity, dark figures wandering the night, single people and animals going missing, strange noises, that sort of thing."

"So are you thinking one or two, or is this place gonna be overrun?" J asked, trying to hide his nervousness, it shone through in his voice however.

"Absolutely no idea." K stated, and then glanced over at J. "So be ready for the worst." J nodded and the drive continued in relative silence for a while. Hours went by as they drove through Connecticut, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, and finally into Maine, all in relative silence, J had attempted to start a couple of conversations, in vain.

They drove into Durham, and stopped at a small gas station to refill and ask for directions. They walked into the very small building, packed with snacks, soda, and cigarettes. K turned to the man behind the counter, a middle aged man with signs of a receding hairline and a nametag that read 'Grant'.

"Excuse me sir," K said, Grant's head turned in their direction. "Can you tell me where I can find Elm Street?"

"Elm Street?" J interrupted, confused.

"Every town has one, kid." K answered plainly. His head turned back to the man. "As I was saying, Elm Street?" Very disinterestedly, Grant gave K directions on how to find Elm Street, K thanked the man and left. J stayed a moment longer and looked at the man.

"They have you back to work already? J asked, in a very surprised manner.

"End of the world or not, people still need gas, I guess." Grant replied without even a hint of interest. "Plus I need the cash." He added.

"Well damn, man." J said, somewhat dumbfounded. He reached into his pocket, got his wallet out and pulled out a ten dollar bill. J left the bill on the counter. "I think you deserve this, man." He said as he walked out.

"Thank you." The man said with a hint of surprise. "Uh, have a good one!" he yelled, as J opened the door, just barely catching what Grant had said, J gave a little hand gesture that seemed to say 'right back at ya'. J sat back into the passenger seat of the Ford and looked at K.

"So you know where we're headin' now, right?" J asked.

"Yep." K replied. And with that, they drove back onto the road. Less than 10 minutes had passed before J and K pulled up to a fairly sizable and fairly old home in front of a large cornfield. The house was 2 stories tall and white with a design that resembled 19th century southern architecture, K noted that despite the fact that it appeared to be very old; it was a nice looking place in good repair, minus the boards that barred all the windows. K parked the car alongside the road; they both exited the vehicle and walked up the long driveway to the house.

"So this is the place, huh?" J asked.

"That it is," K replied, "what are you thinking?"

"I'm thinking it looks like the Klan lives here." J said, sarcastically.

"It's Maine, not Georgia, slick." K replied.

"I don't even care, man, if I see a white robe, I'm gone." This made K smile again. _Still a rookie. _He thought. They stood in front of the door, K rang the doorbell. A moment passed before a tired looking woman answered the door. She was skinny blonde, in her early 30's, she was pretty but not especially gorgeous, she looked exhausted with bags under her bloodshot red eyes, and more distressing to J and K, she wielded a double barrel shotgun.

"Who are you?" She asked bitterly.

"Ma'am," K began, collecting his thoughts for a split second to create an alias, "my name is Agent Black, and this is my associate Agent White, FBI, we're here to look into the sightings you reported." J rolled his eyes when he heard that, it was always 'Agent Black and White' with K.

"I was wondering when you were going to get here." She said unhappily, she opened the door all the way. "Come on in, I suppose." J and K walked in, the woman gestured them towards the couch in her living room. A little girl, no older than nine sat on the couch. The woman sat next to her daughter and propped the shotgun against the arm of the couch. J and K stood opposite the couch, very awkwardly in silence.

"My name is Jessica," the woman said finally, "and this is my daughter Susanne." There was a pause. "We had heard the rumors about maybe one of them still left running around the town, I didn't really believe it, which was until about a week ago, when my husband left the house to get a flashlight out of the car, and was taken."

"How are you sure he was taken, ma'am?" K asked.

"I heard him yell, I grabbed the shotgun and as soon as I opened the door I saw one of those bastards carrying my husband over its shoulder. I shot it once, got it in the arm, but it just ran off into the corn." She explained, her voice was weak and sad.

"Our condolences go out to you and your daughter, ma'am." K said, noticing a tear rolling down her face. Her daughter interjected.

"A monster took my daddy." She said sadly. Before anything else could be said, a strange clicking noise could be heard outside, followed by rapid footsteps.

"Uh . . . Agent, uh Black." J said nervously.

"That's our cue, kid." K said. K approached the couch and kneeled before the little girl. "We're going to get the monsters that got your daddy sweetheart, I promise." He assured her, K looked towards Jessica, and she gave him a nod. They walked to the doorway, pulled their silver handgun-esq weapons out of their belts and opened the door.

.


	3. The Chase

**A/N: **I have been frightfully busy as of late andI don't get to write as often as I'd like, but I found myself with a free afternoon, giving me the time for this. I would really rather not keep you waiting another two weeks for another chapter, but in the event that such a thing occurs, I sincerely hope this keeps you both interested and entertained in the meantime, this is the part of the story where the unspecified parts of the "Signs" universe are starting to be explored, so I hope you dig it and find my ideas interesting.

3

The front door swung open and late afternoon light filled the dimly lit home, two imposingly tall aliens, with a color and skin pattern eerily resembling the gravel they stood on, stood just over ten feet from the door on the driveway. The aliens appeared to be conversing in their strange rapid clicking language, they did not directly face the door and didn't seem to notice J or K. Instinctively, J aimed and pulled the trigger of his silver gun, a rapid and high pitched 'ping' sound erupted from the weapon followed immediately by a bright blue shot which met the side of his target's head, blowing it back several feet and practically destroying everything above its shoulders. The other alien darted its head in the direction of J and K, but before it had time to react further, K fired a second shot that grazed the alien's upper left leg, leaving a sizable chunk burned off. The alien let out an unsettlingly loud and distinctively inhuman screech, obviously from the pain. With surprising speed, the alien half ran, half limped in the direction of the cornfield. They chased it. Even when injured, the alien was just as fast as any person, but far slower than a fully able alien. While running, J looked to K.

"You never miss like that, what happened?" J said while trying to pace his breathing.

"I wasn't trying to kill it, I was trying to wound it," K gasped, obviously having a harder time keeping up, "we just saw two, maybe there are more, we can follow it when it's wounded like this, we wouldn't have a snowball's chance in hell if it wasn't, and maybe it can lead us to the rest." J agreed silently, they had followed the alien all the way around the house and saw as it entered the cornfield, with them only a few yards behind. They found it difficult to keep track of the wounded alien in the thick corn, but managed to stay on its trail. The sound of rustling corn filled their ears. They reached a crop circle in the corn, obviously having been created by the alien's two or so weeks prior, it seemed to be roughly 200 feet across. They watched as the alien desperately limped through the circle, and it was clear that it was making its way towards the wooded area just beyond the corn. At the end of the circle, K stopped, bent over and exhausted.

"Kid, I gotta take a breather," K gasped, "I'll catch up." J nodded and continued into the corn after the alien. J reached the end of the cornfield and into the wooded area; he stopped and looked into the woods, and saw the alien making a mad dash right into the heart of it just a few feet ahead. The woods weren't quite dense, but they appeared to stretch over a long distance, and J knew the sun would be setting in a couple of hours.

"Aw damn." J uttered to himself as he chased after the alien into the woods. _There had better not be another 50 of these guys waiting to get me in here._ He thought nervously as he ran through the woods after the wounded alien. For several moments, all that could be heard was the hurried footsteps of J and the alien, paired with both of their heavy breathing. J found a comfort zone 10 feet or so behind the alien, he knew he could keep on its tail, but he wouldn't have to smell it, there was something unnerving about the sour smell the alien produced. After a short time, the alien appeared to suddenly disappear into the ground, J sprinted to see what was happening, only to realize that there was a very large clearing, and in the middle of the clearing was a very large crater. The alien's descent into the crater gave it the illusion of being sucked into the ground from a distance. J looked down into the crater, and heard a noise comparable to that of the opening of a city bus's doors. A black rectangle appeared in the crater, the alien climbed into it, and J realized it was a doorway, a doorway into one of the alien's invisible ships! J couldn't believe it; they had actually found one of the ships. _He _had actually found one of the alien ships. The doorway disappeared with the same hiss it made when it opened. Moments later, K arrived, panting and exhausted.

"Did you lose it?" K gasped, bending over slightly, grabbing his knees.

"Well naw, I mean, uh, damn, it's just -" J blubbered in nervous surprise.

"Spit it out, kid." K said, slightly annoyed and very out of breath.

"Just uh, look." J said, bending over to pick up a rock. He picked a rock of medium size off the ground and hurled it into the crater, it made a loud clanging noise as it hit the top of the invisible ship and slid off the side.

"You did it, slick." K said in surprise. "You found one of their ships." J and K tried their best to maneuver down the crater without falling down; they faltered a few times, but never fully fell. When they reached the bottom of the crater, J pointed to where the doorway had appeared.

"So uh, there was like this uh, swishy sound and this doorway appeared right here." J explained. "And then he walked into it and it uh, closed up." K gestured towards where J had pointed.

"So right there?" Queried K.

"Yeah." J answered.

"Alright." K said simply, he pulled his silver weapon out. It gleamed a bit in the late afternoon light that cracked through the trees. He adjusted the weapon's settings. "You uh, might want to step aside, slick." K warned. J stepped next to K. He aimed his weapon, and squeezed the trigger, resulting in a brilliant blue flash. The blast hit its mark, with a loud bang accompanied by a dazzling small explosion, the invisible door was blown into oblivion and the dark, rectangular doorway was revealed. Being closer, J realized that the doorway was impressively tall, twelve feet at least. K approached the doorway, while J remained stationary. K, just a couple of feet from the doorway, glanced over to J.

"You coming, slick?" K asked.

"Man, this is bullshit. If we go in there, none of us are comin' out." J argued defensively.

"Well I'm going," K started, "and if you make me go in there all by myself, how do you expect me to come out at all?" J rolled his eyes and let out a sigh, walking slowly towards the doorway.

"Fine." he said unhappily as K walked into the doorway, J close behind. "But this is still bullshit."


	4. The Ship

A/N: I am really REALLY sorry about the wait guys, I've had a lot going on, but hopefully this chapter will be worth that entire wait. I really am trying to get on a more consistent writing schedule and I have no intention of giving this up.

4

If J had been asked earlier that day to compose a list of the top ten places he would most certainly not want to find himself, inside a spacecraft belonging to the invaders definitely would have made the top five. But as much as he didn't want to be there, that is exactly where he found himself, gun at the ready, slowly creeping down the ships hallway. The ship was even more unpleasant than either J or K could have thought. The hallway was maybe seven feet wide and twelve feet tall, very dimly lit and reeked of the scent J had noted on the alien he pursued earlier, but much stronger. The scent was nearly unbearable, but the heat was worse. J and K's suits were soaked in sweat, and although they had been in the ship for a couple of minutes the discomfort and tension made it seem like an eternity. To add to the uncertainty of it all, their footsteps echoed endlessly through the metal hallways, making it impossible to hear if anything else was approaching. The stench, the heat, and the unease made J feel physically sick, K was faring slightly better, but he wasn't exactly pleased, being in an unfamiliar environment with a hostile force hardly ever resulted in a favorable outcome.

"Do these guys have night vision or what? 'Cause I can't see a damn thing." J said in a hushed voice, mostly to defuse the tension of the situation.

"I don't know, slick." K replied, plainly but quietly.

"And why didn't these guys head out with the rest of them?" J inquired, not expecting an actual answer. K gave one anyway.

"Too soon to tell much of anything." K responded simply. "But if I had to guess, I'd say we're not standing in a landed ship, this looks a lot more like a crash site."

"What makes you say that?" Inquired J.

"Landings don't leave craters, kid." K answered, he almost smiled again, at how much of a rookie J still was. "These folks look to be stuck without a ride home."

"Iight, you're probably right." J admitted. J and K continued down the hallway, making their steps as quiet as possible. K loosened his tie and unbuttoned the first couple buttons to help with his profuse sweating, J noticed and followed suit. It did little, but it was better than nothing. As they walked down the hall, J thought he saw something at the end, of the hallway, it was hard to tell in the darkness, but as they got closer, J squinted and saw what appeared to be a dead end.

"Please tell me that ain't a dead end." J spoke quietly but unhappily.

"It isn't killer, that right there is a choice." K replied.

"What does that even mean, man?" J responded, impatiently. But as they got closer, it was apparent. He had not seen a dead end, instead, the hallway turned in two separate directions, right and left. They stopped in front of the turn.

"I'll take the right, you take the left." K ordered.

"Hell no." J responded.

"Alright, if it really means that much to you, you take the right, I'll take the left." K stated, dryly.

"Man, you ain't Fred, this ain't Scooby Doo. I've seen this one already, we split up, we both die, but the black dude dies first." J agitatedly argued.

"Slick, listen-" K started, before an alien ran from the right side to the left side of the turn. They didn't even look at each other before they both ran left. It was even harder to keep up with the alien in the dark hallway than it was in the cornfield; it almost completely blended into the darkness of the hallway, making it nearly impossible to see. They wrapped around a bend, trailing pretty far behind their target, they saw red light pouring out of a doorway on the side of the hallway, and a dark silhouette step into the doorway, within a second, the door had closed.

"Damn." J exclaimed, halfway-sarcastically as they both stopped. "I guess we lost him."

"You know, if I knew any better, I'd say you were relieved we lost him, slick." K commented.

"Me? Nah man." J replied, jokingly.

"Well it isn't over yet." K said as he walked towards the door the alien entered. J kept close to K, fearing more aliens could be lurking in the shadows. On the side of the door, embedded in the wall, was a small keypad with strange symbols.

"Looks like it's a password lock." J pointed out, gesturing to the keypad.

"I agree." K replied.

"So I was thinking we could put a call into HQ, we could have some tech guys and a squad up in this within a few hours, get this open and-" J started.

"Step back." K interrupted bluntly, taking aim at the keypad with his gun. J obediently stepped away.

"What makes you think that would work at all?" J skeptically queried.

"It doesn't matter what planet you're from, this always does the trick." Replied K. He pulled the trigger, a flash of blue light illuminated the hallway briefly, sparks flew off the keypad, and the door slid open, revealing a brighter room, much hotter, and illuminated by red light. They're weapons at the ready, they charged into the room. Three aliens were huddled in the corner camouflaged red against the wall, eating some form of meat. One lay on the floor, with a dark spot on its leg where it had been shot earlier. J and K didn't hesitate to gun all three down. In five seconds it was over, steaming corpses on the ground, two of them with their heads blown away, and one with a large charred hole in the center of its chest.

"That was way easier than I thought it would be." J said with a smile. "What is this place though?" In the heat of the moment neither of the men had taken the time to look around the room before blowing away the three aliens. A quick glance around the room was all it took to tell where they were. On the opposite end was a heat vent on the floor, visible heat moved upwards to large chunks of meat hanging from metallic ropes of some kind.

"Please tell me that ain't . . ." J spoke in disbelief, unable to finish his sentence. They slowly approached the hanging meat; it was clear that they were looking at a human torso, skinned and hung out to dry under the vent.

"The early reports were on the money." K said somberly. "They came to eat us, like cattle."

"I think I'm gonna' be sick." J groaned, running towards the other end of the room where the dead aliens lay. He bent over, resting his hand on the wall, it was hot to the touch, but he didn't care, he looked down and saw that one of the aliens died with a dried human arm in its hand, bite marks visible on the palm of the dried hand. That sight pushed J to the edge; he hurled the contents of his stomach on and around the dead aliens. Disgusting as it was, he felt incredibly better after doing so, and returned to K's side. J looked over and it looked as if a tear was rolling down K's cheek. There was a silent moment, before j turned over to K.

"You alright, man?" J asked, genuinely concerned.

"Yeah, kid, I'll be fine." K said weakly. It was a lie though, K felt nowhere near fine. He hurt deeply. _This is what became of Zed._ K thought to himself. It was a thought that stung. The heat, the nervousness, the exhaustion, the _stench_, it all had nothing on the sorrow K felt. It was more than sorrow though, it was hatred, hatred for the monsters that did this to his old colleague, hatred for the creatures that did this to so many people, men, women, children, _innocent _people, all became nothing more than a snack for a malevolent race of heartless, stinking bastards. This is the pain K felt, the emotional burden he bore. One he hadn't the heart to speak of.

"You sure, man?" J asked again. "Because you look like you're crying."

"No way, slick, it's just this damned heat." K said somewhat lightheartedly, pretending nothing was wrong.

"Iight." J responded, not at all believing K's story. "Maybe we should get out of here, it's hot as hell." They walked two steps towards the door before K gestured to stop.

"Wait." K said simply. "Do you hear that?"

"Hear what?"

"Shut up and listen." K snapped. They looked around the room and listened, a very small whimpering sound was audible.

"The hell is that?" J asked. K gestured to the other end of the room, where the sound was coming from. A console attached to the floor across the room that stood roughly four feet high appeared to be the source of the noise. They silently crept towards it, as they neared the silver console, J walked around to one side and K to the other. They found the source of the whimpering, an alien was curled up in a ball behind the console. It saw K and J looking at it and whimpered even louder.

"I kind of don't wanna' kill it when it's all crying like this." J admitted.

"Speak for yourself, kid." K replied, aiming his gun at the alien. Almost instantly the alien stood up and rushed away, darting out the door and into the dark hallway.

"I think it heard you." J joked.

"Don't just stand there, get it! I'll catch up!" K yelled, surprisingly loud. J sprinted out the door, and K walked casually out. J's excellent athleticism was a huge part of why K made him his partner, that and a certain incident that happened in 1969, but he was fairly sure J didn't know much about that just yet. He pulled out his cell phone and dialed the number of the clean-up agent at the MiB. It rang twice before Agent B answered the phone.

"B, it's K, I'm transmitting you my coordinates, and I've got something big for you."

J sprinted down the hallway, he was fairly sure the alien had left the ship, he saw the dusk light from the blown open doorway in the distance, he ran faster, approaching the doorway and jumping out. He saw the alien climbing the rocks leading out of the crater, he fired several shots, missing his mark each time, J was feeling a little disoriented by the change of light.

"Dammit." He cursed to himself. He ran after the alien, it had already cleared the rocks. He stumbled out of the crater and sprinted towards the alien as it ran off into the woods. By the time they had reached the cornfield, J was on the verge of collapse. Somehow, he had managed to stay very close to the alien, he couldn't keep a steady aim moving that fast, but he had managed to keep close.

He pushed through the corn; it rustled loudly in his ears. He was truly on the edge of passing out when he reached the crop circle. The alien was nearing the middle when he heard the rumble of thunder and felt droplets of rain on his head and hands. In seconds it was sprinkling and the alien was visually in pain, it began running in circles, and collapsed to the ground, rain began to pour down and the alien writhed in pain, and finally stopped.

"Woo!" J screamed enthusiastically, the rain dripping down his face; it was refreshing after the heat of the ship and his exhausting run. Nonetheless, he collapsed to the floor and laughed victoriously, not even caring that he was ruining his suit.

A/N: I really hope you enjoyed this chapter, personally it is my favorite so far, and once again, I am really sorry for the wait, but there is more to come soon!


	5. A Small Victory

**A/N**: I am SO extremely sorry about the lack of updates lately, I will remedy this best I can with this chapter, I hope you all enjoy!

5

J laid in the corn, soaking in the rain and taking a breather after the physically exhausting chase. J had never been happier about rain in his entire life. He glanced to where the alien fell to the ground; the downpour had reduced the alien to a collapsed mass of meaty pinkish red. J's throat burned, his chest ached and his legs were sore nearly to the point of numbness, but he couldn't help but feel a hint of triumph over besting the alien, even if the rain played a large part in the creature's defeat. J looked up, rain fell into his eyes and blurred his vision slightly, he shut his eyes to avoid further irritation. The sound of the rain was calming, and the muddy ground felt strangely comfortable to the exhausted agent, J could feel his heartbeat slowing, he relaxed his muscles and drifted slowly into sleep.

Three weeks earlier . . .

J sat on his couch, eyes glued to the television, He had been watching all morning, but he couldn't get up for even a moment. An obviously nervous anchorwoman listed every city and nation that a crop circle had appeared in the prior 24 hours. The list was staggering, spanning hundreds of cities in dozens of countries. The anchor gave every single detail of every new sighting as it occurred, all the information a person could ask for, all but the cause of the crop circles. J wasn't sure what to think, there was no call from headquarters, and no considerable new alien activity to speak of, but the crop circles were too widespread to simply be coincidence.

J's cell phone rang; the ringtone was a synthetic old telephone ring, the kind that only sounds real when you're half deaf. He scooped up his phone from the other couch cushion and answered it without even checking to see who called.

"Hello?" J asked, half excited and half nervous. He trembled awaiting any information that his caller may have had.

"Slick, have you watched TV lately?" questioned the unmistakable voice of J's partner.

"All morning, what do we know?" J replied quickly.

"Not a thing." K replied. There was a pause. "I need you at HQ." K finally said.

"Sure thing, just let me suit up and I'll meet you there." J said. As soon as J had finished that sentence, K hung up the phone. J hated it when K was like this, all serious and extremely vague. It also meant that something extremely serious was going on. J walked to his bedroom, it was a plain white room with a queen sized bed, a bit big for one man, but it came in handy during the occasional situations when J would bring a woman home.

He slid his closet door open, he chuckled a little bit, _not a lot of wardrobe options_. He though, as he thought every morning. In his closet were three black suits, with three black ties and three pairs of black dress shoes. He picked one at random and suited up. Within minutes, he was on the sidewalk in front of his building, flagging down a taxi. The taxi ride was awkward and felt much longer than it was; the driver had a radio news station blaring and at every possible moment attempted to start a conversation involving the crop circles. J had a bad feeling about it all, his stomach ached unpleasantly with anxiety, and he shrugged the driver's attempted conversation starters with one word, disinterested responses.

The taxi dropped him off at a café near the MiB headquarters. J paid the driver the fare, with a generous tip, and bode him a half-hearted goodbye. The café was nearly always full, but on that particular morning it was deserted. In fact, the entire city was considerably less crowded that morning; droves of people had elected to stay home that morning in favor of watching the news for information on the crop circles. The only person in the café was a pimply teenage boy at the counter, his red hair mostly concealed by a uniform baseball cap worn by the café's staff. J ordered a small coffee with cream and sugar and walked up to the entrance to the Men in Black headquarters. The large room at the entrance was particularly cool on that summer morning, and an elderly man in a suit sat on a bench reading a newspaper, the headline read: "CROP CIRCLES SWEEP THE GLOBE!" That morning, J didn't even exchange pleasantries with the man as he typically did. The crop circles had put J too on edge.

J descended to the main area of the headquarters via the elevator, upon their opening, J saw that the headquarters was buzzing with activity, but none of it alien. Agents ran back and forth, making phone calls, frantically typing into computers, and running about the room giving papers to each other. J looked up to Zed's glass office at the opposite side of the room; he could see Zed and K talking to each other. J made his way across the large room, dodging agents running back and forth. J walked up the stairs to Zed's office, sipping his coffee. He opened the glass door and K glanced at J as he walked in.

"Slick!" K screamed, surprisingly loud. J felt a wet slap on his face. "SLICK!" K screamed again, much louder.

J's eyes snapped open, rain got in his eyes but he could make out the shape of K kneeling beside him, K slapped J in the face again.

"Hey! Hey! I'm up!" J shouted, stumbling to his feet. The sun had fully set and J was soaking in water and mud. J faced K, still a little drowsy. "How long was I out?" J asked, raising his voice to be heard over the pounding rain.

"Half an hour or so." K answered, managing to be both loud and monotone at the same time. "Guess that chase took a lot outta ya."

"Yeah, I guess so." J replied.

"Let's get back to the house." K stated, nudging J in the direction of the old home. They walked across the crop circle and rustled through the cornfield at a steady pace, finally making it to the backyard of the house. They circled around the home to the front. They spotted the silhouettes of the corpses of the aliens they had killed in the driveway, nothing more than a pile of meat in the heavy rain. K rang the doorbell; there was a window of about 30 seconds before Jessica finally answered the door. She stood in the doorway and shot a disapproving look at J and K, dripping wet from the rain.

"You get em'?" She asked plainly.

"Yes ma'am, we did." K replied, forcing a smile.

"Well I guess you two have earned a drink then," Jessica said simply, "come in, you two will catch pneumonia out here."

"Thank you very much." K said back, flashing the fake smile again. They walked into the home; it was much more brightly lit than earlier that evening. Jessica gestured to them, indicating they could sit on the couch.

"Try and keep your voices down, Susanne is asleep." Jessica warned. She walked into the kitchen, which was visible over a bar on the wall of the living room. "We don't have any coffee, but there's some hot cocoa, it should do you boys some good." She explained from the kitchen.

"Sound's wonderful." K replied. K and J sat in silence for several minutes before Jessica entered the room with two mugs filled with steaming brown liquid.

"Thank you, ma'am." K said as he accepted the mug and drank deeply.

"'Preciate it." J groggily thanked, also taking a deep drink. Jessica sat in a recliner facing the couch and stared at J and K for a moment.

"So what happened out there?" She finally queried.

"We chased em' around through, gunned a couple down, the rest got it in the rain." J replied tiredly, taking another drink of the cocoa.

"And you're sure you got them all?" Jessica asked, concerned.

"Positive." K immediately replied. "You can rest assured that you and your daughter are safe."

"Did you get them?" A soft, small voice interjected. "Did you get the monsters that got my daddy?" It was Susanne; she stood at the foot of the staircase, watching J and K.

"Susanne! Go back upstairs! It's past your bedtime!" Jessica firmly protested. Susanne defied her mother and approached K.

"We got them all, sweetheart." K answered, warmly. Susanne gave a half smile and ran to her mother's side, and gave her a hug. Her mother's anger seemed to melt in the warmth of her daughter's embrace. They held each other for a long moment. Their grips on each other softened and Jessica turned her gaze to J and K.

"Who are you, really?" she questioned without a hint of kindness.

"Ma'am, I'm sure I don't know what you mean." K fibbed.

"You aren't FBI, the FBI doesn't pack heat like that, no one does." She stated, matter-of-factly. "So if you boys are Area 51, or S.H.I.E.L.D. or whatever, you better tell me right now." Upon hearing this, K reached into his pocket and retrieved his pen-shaped neuralizer.

"Miss," K began, "everything you want to know can be found right here." K explained, pointing into the eye of the device and putting on a pair of sunglasses, which J did as well. Jessica and Susanne looked at the neuralizer. K pressed a button on the small device, and for an instant, the room was filled with a red flash. J and K removed their sunglasses. The mother and her daughter both had an expression of pure blankness on their faces. K looked Jessica in the eyes. "You are safe." He stated simply. "Love and cherish each other."

J and K stood up and exited the home, walking briskly up the driveway to the rain to K's old Ford.


	6. Reunion

6

The rain had subsided around midnight, the sky cleared and it became a rather fair evening. J and K found no topics to speak about, which made for a car trip home equally as quiet as the trip to Durham. It hadn't bothered J as much the second time around. For whatever reason, return trips always seemed considerably shorter than the trip to the initial destination. K sat behind the wheel of the car, eyes fixed on the road, and J leaned back in the passenger seat and relaxed. It had just dawned on him how tired he really was, so J took advantage of the situation, relaxed and shut his eyes, dozing off to sleep.

K glanced over at J, and returned his eyes to the road. The day had taken a bigger toll on the old agent than he would've cared to admit. He wished so deeply that he had not been in that ship, that he had not seen what the monsters had done to their victims, what they had done to Zed. It was an image he couldn't remove from his mind. Zed, his oldest friend, being dragged away with his family, poisoned and killed by the alien creatures, to be cut up, dried and eaten. K's eyes filled with tears, and he was so thankful that J had fallen asleep and couldn't see him. K tried to think of better times, the 30 years he had spent working for Zed had been mostly good to him. He remembered every time Zed had given him the benefit of the doubt, trusted his judgment, or supported him in a tight spot. But as soon as those thoughts arose, they were instantly polluted by regret. _I wish I had known him better. I should've talked him out of going. _And worst of all, _I wish I had gone with him._

K acknowledged that the only real friend he had left was his partner, sleeping in the passenger seat, nearly 25 years his junior and the polar opposite of K in almost every perceivable way, but against all odds, J was his best and only friend. There were times where K wanted to express his gratitude to his partner, but he could never bring himself to do it. Sometimes he wasn't even sure why. He just knew he couldn't. K was lost in his thoughts, everyone he ever called a friend was taken from him in the end. His parents, Roman the Fabulist, his old partner D, now Zed, all gone. Not to mention the women. K had really only had two women in his life that really left an impression on him. It pained him endlessly just to think about them. He glanced over to the passenger seat at J once again. _How long will it be before I lose you too?_ He thought. K shuddered at his own pessimism and focused his vision back on the road.

K just then realized that he was already only minutes from HQ. He had practically put his body on auto-pilot while he remained lost in a cloud of negative thoughts and feelings. The lights of Manhattan were a far cry from the sleepy town of Durham, Maine. Even after a major disaster, New York City was an extremely crowded and busy town, especially when compared to the quiet corners of Durham. K pulled up to the front of the MiB headquarters building, K could vaguely make out the engraving on the beige stone building "Brooklyn Battery Tunnel" and below it "Triborough Bridge & Tunnel Authority." K nudged J, who immediately breathed deeply and sat up.

"Wh-what?" He asked disoriented.

"We're back." K simply stated, unbuckling his seatbelt.

"Iight." J tiredly replied, following suit in unbuckling his seatbelt. Both men opened their respected doors and climbed out of the old Ford. J, still groggy, flinched slightly at the noise the door made when he shut it behind him. They made their way to the door of the building; K walked just ahead of J and opened the door first, holding it open for J to sluggishly walk through. K closed the door behind J and took the lead in front.

"Evening, K." The older gentleman on the bench greeted loudly from across the room, not glancing up from his newspaper.

"Evening, Harv." K replied.

"Heard about your replacement, didn't think they'd make it happen so fast." Harv commented, casually.

"Replacement?" K shot back, with a hint of surprise.

"Downstairs." Harv stated. K wasted no more time trying to get information from Harv, and instead, hurried J along to the elevator with him. J was just barely coming to when the elevator doors shut.

"What'd he mean replacement?" J asked, standing upright next to K, facing the elevator doors.

"I guess we're about to find out." K answered. The elevator doors opened in front of them, revealing the white MiB Headquarters interior. They stepped forward onto the platform overlooking the room and it lowered to the floor. J and K made their way across the floor of the room to the staircase on the opposite side. K could make out the shape of a person in the overhead glass office, but couldn't see who. The two men climbed the stairs and opened the door to the office. Sitting behind the desk in the glass office was an older blonde woman in business dress with her hair up.

"Hello K." The woman greeted in a decidedly British accent.

"Hello, O." K replied coldly.

"Wait," J interrupted confusedly. "Y'all two know each other?" J inquired, pointing at O and K.

"It's been a long time." K stated.

"Very long." O agreed.

"How do you two know each other?" J questioned, louder. O shot her head at J.

"I used to work for the agency." O answered. "I left in the early 70's to work at for UNIT."

"UNIT?" J asked, still very confused.

"Oh come now, you must know UNIT." O exclaimed in a sort of calm, condescending surprise. J shook his head. "Unified Intelligence Taskforce? The Men in Black's sister organization? Ringing any bells?" J once again shook his head. "You certainly are thick, aren't you?" she insulted.

"Huh?" J asked, without the slightest clue of what the woman was talking about.

"Wait a moment, I know you." O stated, pointing at J. "You're -"

"He doesn't know about that yet." K interrupted.

"Know about what, man?" J shouted in agitated confusion. "Know about what? What is going on?"

"All that matters is that UNIT acknowledged that the Men in Black needed a new agency director, and saw me fit for the job." O explained matter-of-factly.

"Iight, whatever." J replied, still with a hint of irritation.

"Now you boys need to rest up tonight, you got a big assignment waiting for you tomorrow." O said.

"What's the job?" J asked.

"Las Vegas." O answered, with a smirk on her face.


End file.
